Irregular Tire Wear

[That-Guy]

For a few years, way back before I inherited the 94 Explorer, it started shaking really bad at 62-65 miles per hour. below 60 and above 70 its silk smooth but it is rough in the 60's. It does make that sound of tire wobble you get when the tires are out of balance. From what I'm told it has done it even after the tires were balanced. Now that the 75,000 mile tires are at 50,000 I can see irregular wear. 3 are in perfect condition but the driver side front is worn bad on the inside, the outside is fine. My dad told me he thinks its either a king pin or a ball joint. I'm familiar with worn ball joints but I've never heard of a bad king pin. Any thoughts? Can I even take apart any of those on a 17 year old vehicle?


Also When I put it in gear it really bangs. I thought the knuckle was worn causing the drive shaft to have play, but it is not. I had him lay under the truck to check it out as I rocked it forward and back. He says it is rock solid. I'm thinking maybe changing the fluid will help?

 

[That-Guy]

bump

 

[RangerX]

Ball joints do go bad. Lowers more than uppers from my experience. What size tire do you run?
Maybe look at the radius arm bushings for that clunk...

 

[FROADER]

The tire wear and wabble could be a number of things.

ball joints
beam bushings
radius arm bushings
wheel bearings
air pressure

Other than checking what you already have I can't help with the drive line issues.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

Sounds like you need a thorough front end suspension inspection. But the shakes from 60-70 is pretty common.

 

[That-Guy]

It came with 30" tires when it was first bought. We put the regular 235's on it in about 2002 after the shaking started.

 

[rustbucketMI]

Go to an alignment shop and have them take a look at it. If you don't want to spend the money for something that might not be bad then I have a couple suggestions:

Check the ball joints: See if you can move the tire by hand at all. If it does move you have a bad ball joint. This can be done on the ground or in the air. If your steering wheel has a lot of play before the wheels turn that is another indication. Those ball joints go bad so replacing them is probaly a good idea anyway.

Rotate your tires: Throw a good tire on the bad side and wait a few thousand miles. If the tire continues to wear when you know its a location specific problem and you can diagnose from there or just keep rotating thru tires and diagnose when you buy new ones.